The Staircase Sled Bass Heist with SATAN'S PILGRIMS

We often sit down with bands that will ONE DAY be Portland music legends. But it's the rare treat to be in the presence of bands that are legends RIGHT NOW. Such is the case this week, when we sit down with Portland Surf Rock institution Satan's Pilgrims. Seriously, you guys, they're in the Oregon Music Hall of Fame and have been in the game since '92! They grace us with an insider's look at the history and meaning of surf, the open mind and open heart of Portland music that has endured for decades, playing the Hollywood Bowl, the brief heyday of pilgrim-themed rock 'n roll, and tons more. You'll love it. Promise.  

Music this week:

• "Surf Lyre" by Satan's Pilgrims (23:57)
• "Crying In A Storm" by Satan's Pilgrim (51:57)
• "Firestorm" by The Von Dwells (69:19)
• "Hope for the Best, Expect the Worst" by Johnny Franco (101:54) 

Transcript

SPEAKER_07 0:00

You're listening to Hot Garbage.

SPEAKER_02 0:10

Hello and welcome to another episode of the Hot Garbage Podcast, Portland, Oregon's premiere music discovery and interview show. My name is Drew. I'm one of your co-hosts. I'm joined, as always, by my dear friend and co-host Andy. Hey there. Andy, our silent partner, Nate is with us. He's making the sound happen as he does each and every week. I want to get this out of the way before we talk to our guest, just in case it's on the tips of our minds, because it's on the tips of mine. Are we entering the the Wild West of erectile dysfunction medication?

SPEAKER_01 0:40

Oh, there's a lot of things.

SPEAKER_02 0:41

Because I can't go, I can't go three flicks of my Instagram without being served up some crazy new D pill.

SPEAKER_01 0:48

This one's caffeine, and this one's got all the drugs in it. There's one I found today that I was interested in that was like being specifically marketed to the men of Grinder. I think it's called Woodcutter. And I was like, that's that's my shit. Okay, let's see. If that works, that sounds like it works.

SPEAKER_02 1:03

There are no men that need a harder erection than the men of grinder. So that would be like pre-milk.

SPEAKER_01 1:09

I was like, that's what that's gotta be good. And it was so good that I filled out the questionnaire and I got to the end and it went, nope, you can't have it.

SPEAKER_02 1:17

What?

SPEAKER_01 1:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:18

It said your E was not D enough.

SPEAKER_01 1:20

Yeah, they were like, actually pretty high functioning erection. Yeah. You actually no, it was just I I answered all those questions correctly. Yeah, it was like I think it was because I had to click the I have Crohn's button, and they were like, oh, actually that's a huge red flag. And I have something that doctors call boner heart. Yeah, I do have boner heart. If my uh blood pressure drops below a certain level, my heart gets a boner and it's really dangerous.

SPEAKER_02 1:46

Oh man. Are there like like with that, is there actually some sort of material difference in the quality of my erection from medication to medication? Or is it just like that now the Viagra thing is like public domain, so people are just flooding the market?

SPEAKER_01 2:01

I don't know. I feel like there are different ways the different boner drugs work. So maybe each one is like specific to your own genetic makeup and what works for you.

SPEAKER_02 2:10

I want one in an energy drink. Yeah. An E D E D.

SPEAKER_01 2:14

I want yes, that sounds good. That it sells itself. Yeah. I want one that's everything combined. All the elect all the drugs in one.

SPEAKER_02 2:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 2:24

You know? That's what I'm thinking. I was looking up online, speaking of this, I was looking at cross drug references, and there are a lot of new you know how they used to call it like hippie flipping if you're doing like mushrooms and acid together.

SPEAKER_02 2:36

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_01 2:37

Or candy flipping if you were doing like I forget the.

SPEAKER_02 2:39

Yeah, candy flip is the one that I've heard. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 2:41

There was some new ones that I had never heard of. Selma flipping? What's that? I think it's uh 2CB and Molly and maybe like one other thing. LSD too. Wow. There's levels to this shit. And then there was time frames where it was like take this, then take this, and then two and a half hours later, take this. Oh yeah. I am I felt like an old man.

SPEAKER_02 3:01

I thought there would, as we've talked about many times, I thought there would be more designer drugs catered to my lifestyle by this point. But if you've got sort of uh an actuarial card for when to take these when to it's like you're like firing up the lem from Apollo 13 or something. You have to sequence those engines in just the right way. That's pretty good science.

SPEAKER_01 3:20

Yeah, it feels like it science has progressed without me, and I was I just wasn't told.

SPEAKER_02 3:25

Yeah, you're left in the dust. And you're an enthusiast too. They really should have tabbed you on the shoulder when's going on.

SPEAKER_01 3:30

I'm doing my research. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 3:31

Well, uh, we did a little research tonight, Andy, and dug up a true legend that we're talking with tonight. Like we we talk to uh a ton of future legends on this show, and we're very lucky to have the guests we do, but it's pretty rare that we're talking to a living legend. And tonight we're talking uh to the legendary uh Portland surf rock band uh Satan's Pilgrims. They are inductees into the Oregon Music Hall of Fame, so it's like legit. They've been putting out on since 1991 here in Portland, and uh so they've spent their career spans now decades. So we are really excited to talk to them about that journey. You know what I want to talk to them about, Andy? I want to talk to them about what hasn't changed in Portland in the music scene since 90s. It's easy to highlight what's the biggest difference is, but I want to know like what at our its heart is the same. So we're gonna talk about that. We're gonna talk about surf music and its history and what they like about it, and we're gonna talk about what they're up to these days. So really excited to have an in-depth conversation with Satan's pilgrims on this week's episode of Hot Garbage. Enjoy The thing that I was thinking about when we were I was listening to like your catalog all this week and 50 songs. Something like yeah, in that ballpark. 150 plus they all sound the same. Uh well, it's beautiful like working music. It's like you can you can put that that music on the background uh of any activity that you want to do. But you guys have been doing this for a very, very long time in and around Portland and beyond. We usually like want to reflect on like what Portland history was like. But one of the things that I was thinking about was like, from your perspective, what has remained the same and like essentially true about Portland music over the time that y'all have been doing it?

SPEAKER_05 5:24

Well, the question that just popped in my mind was this past summer we were supposed to play uh the uh an all-ages show at the skate park in Milwaukee. And like we and the permits were filed, everything was gonna be okay. And then like five days before the show, the city of Milwaukee said you can't do the show here. And it had something to do with it wasn't our surrounding or anything like that. It was just like some zoning they were changing something inside with the rooms and they found a problem with it. So, um, and um the same uh older sons I have that I was talking about earlier were visiting and uh they have a band or they play music, and uh so me and John, the bass player from the Pilgrims, uh, we're gonna look back them up on Be Their Rhythm Section, because their rhythm section is back in Chattanooga where they live, and do some like garage covers and stuff, and because they play guitar guitar and organ and um yeah, I was super excited, and then we were gonna we were gonna have them on the show at the skate park. So we were like, well, we gotta punt and get something figured out, and we but we wanted to be all ages or like a family thing, and uh we tried a few different places, nothing it was too short notice, so we just set up in my garage and people stood out in the driveway, and people walking by came up and everything. Yeah, and um, so my parents were also visiting at the same time in in their 80s, and uh I overheard my dad say to one of my old friends, he's like, uh asked the same question, and he said, This right here, what's happening right now in this driveway, is like still the same.

SPEAKER_02 7:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:07

Oh yeah, boil the house parties have been happening forever, and they still do. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 7:13

That's like validation, even beyond it's multiple generations can affirm that that's what's been going on for decades. That's very cool.

SPEAKER_03 7:19

And the other part of that is that's how we started. Yeah. And I'm saying that in the context of we were already in other bands, we didn't need to be in another band. We just literally created a house band just for the hell of it, and it just started off as oh, let's just have a day, one day a week where we have everyone who lives here has a jam session.

SPEAKER_01 7:49

Amazing.

SPEAKER_03 7:50

That's how we started, and we had no intention of playing clubs. I think we even like had that conversation where like we're not gonna do this in clubs or anything, we're just gonna do parties. And that worked pretty well for a little bit. Because we were doing clubs and all our other bands and yeah, yeah, we weren't looking for any more, you know, what's the word exposure? Yeah, I don't know if that's the right word, but you know, yeah, it wasn't something that we were seeking out. We weren't there was no plan. Other than and that, although that what kind of was the plan. Keep in mind, too, that there was the X-ray cafe, which was an all-ages venue, which had all kinds of bands. I mean, Fugazi would play there one night, and I mean you name it. Lots of traveling bands would play there, even though it was an all-ages venue and tiny.

SPEAKER_01 8:46

I love seeing the old like monthly calendars for that place to see the crazy bands that played there the same month.

SPEAKER_05 8:53

And the local bands that played there too were all um amazingly unique and great and quasi got their Roger News.

SPEAKER_03 9:03

Yeah, I mean, just the oddest collection. And I do think that that is one thing that has been unique to Portland is that they've there's always been an odd collection of bands that don't mind playing together. Yeah. And whereas if you're going if you're comparing to Seattle, for example, we always sort of felt like there was more of um a deliberate sort of construction happening, and promoters had a certain sort of way of doing things. And I think that here we were just very lucky to have had promoters, bookers, however you want to put it, that were just willing to do just about anything, and we're super over-minded to putting bands together you normally wouldn't think to put on a bill together. That's what's unique about this place.

SPEAKER_01 10:06

That's awesome. I thought you guys were definitely gonna say it's the creeps. There's always been creeps. Oh, yeah. Unfortunately. I think that actually is true too.

SPEAKER_04 10:15

Yeah, yeah, that people that are like, I grew up here and then they we didn't have this kind of stuff in the 80s and 90s, and it's like, what are you talking about?

SPEAKER_05 10:23

I mean, they maybe the some of the substances weren't the same or whatever, but I bet they were. Well, I you know, we didn't hear about the fentanyl stuff as much. But you know, but even when it was just like uh your basic, you know, whino, is that okay to say on the air? And uh we're old enough to where that that was a thing, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 10:44

It was deeply offensive to Somaliers out there or something like that. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:49

But uh that was my like gateway alcohol when I was a kid, was fortified wine in the liquor store. Oh my god, that stuff is dangerous. I don't think I would drink wild Irish Rose for fun these days. But it was a thing.

SPEAKER_05 11:01

But to add what he was saying too, like now, which is great, and uh I think some of them say that uh a little bit of it came from you know seeing us when they were younger or knowing about us, these younger surf bands, but really there were when we started there was the surf trio who had kind of been around earlier in Eugene, and I mean they they didn't play all the time, but they played every once in a while, and um, and you know, they mixed in vocals and stuff like that, and um and after us there came the galaxy trio, but it never got like over one other surf band in town. So we never played like surf night at Blue Gallery or whatever.

SPEAKER_01 11:46

Never did that help you guys out when like surf bands came through town. Did you get the nod to open for them?

SPEAKER_05 11:51

Well, occasionally, but even then there weren't I mean, this is pre-pulp fiction when they've been started. Oh, yeah, before the revolver the only other ones that came through town was Dick Dale, like trying to he was just starting to have his like comeback in the early 90s.

SPEAKER_03 12:04

Yeah, so we would open for you know the Whalers or The Ventures or Dick Dale. Link Ray Link Ray Did you guys ever get to play with Manor Astro Man?

SPEAKER_01 12:17

Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 12:18

We're on the same label in a couple of closes. Was the first time we played with them in Washington, DC? I thought it was at uh garage. Garage, of course, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, they're great. Up and down.

SPEAKER_05 12:29

Yeah, so I mean that was the well is really kind of where the where it all started, really and for your listeners, garage was a uh three-day festival in Bellingham, the home of Estrus Records, which was the sort of premier garage surf, yeah. They included surf and you know, uh just sort of you know getting back to the beginnings of rock and roll or whatever, you know. Um not and it kind of happened co coinciding with the grunge thing, and sometimes they get lumped together, but it was definitely the different, very like 60s-based yeah, um and so they had a festival every Memorial Day weekend, I think it was. Yeah, May, is that the one in May? Yeah, and um, and so bands from all over the country and all over the world, you know, like the nomads from Sweden, or you know, um, and we learned so much, you know, we we were allowed to play on a really early one because a j a band from Japan couldn't get in the country with a visa. There was supposed to be and he had just only Japanese bands, this one.

SPEAKER_03 13:43

And two of the bands couldn't get their visas squared away, so they asked us to fill in. And we were just we had just started.

SPEAKER_05 13:50

Yeah, we were there's no way we should have been on that festival. I mean, no one who no one knew who we were or what, and um but uh those were those were great.

SPEAKER_03 14:04

But to be fair, too, the one of the reasons why Bellingham hosted Grasshock was because of the monument. So there was another group that was kind of you know doing a trad thing but in their own way, and of course, Girl Trouble was already legendary, and you know, they had been doing their thing in Tacoma, you know. I mean, they're still doing it, and so we are, I think, feel pretty grateful to be in that company now, but at the time the whole garage shock thing just kind of blew our minds, mine especially. It was just crazy being the opening band and seeing a packed house and people with microphones and video cameras, wow, yeah, and realizing wow, this is like a convention. And then, you know, not having really thought all that much about it, this is literally like a convention, and there are people from all over the country and all over the world coming to this thing.

SPEAKER_05 15:12

And you couldn't buy an advanced ticket, so people would come from like Finland or England or Japan or and wait in line every day. Because it's like it fit like 300 people, maybe at the most, maybe four. Yeah, three fifty at the most. We came from parties at the hotel. Like everybody was fine with it if they didn't get in.

SPEAKER_02 15:39

Did it sp like because we we had covered the Tree Fort Music Fest in Boise, and if you look around on either weekend of that here in Portland, you're gonna see a lot of bands that are like making this part a leg of their thing. So with that situation, did the town just be like, Well, this is a small place, but we can have shows like sort of organically become a little more well the um on the way go on their way up the week before the weekend, any of the bands from California would play in Portland, yeah, or even bands from other places.

SPEAKER_05 16:07

So um, like we saw the mummies and we saw the Untamed Youth, and we saw them up at the festival too, but we saw them like here with with like 20 people, fansurfers, and a round surfers played at the X-ray. That's so cool, yeah. And it was also when because we had been we didn't have the internet existed, uh maybe kind of. And uh but you know, you couldn't just look up like the gear, right? What we would use, and Dave, one of our guitarists, had the most sort of grasp on it, but um, it wasn't until we saw those bands, like that's where we learned like, oh, okay.

SPEAKER_03 16:45

The Phantom Surfers, the Phantom Surfers, they had it dialed in already, and we're like, okay, that's why it sounds the way it sounds, because they're playing through that gear, and then they had the matching outfits, and like it was just like, okay, this is what this is the next step, and you know, and that's that's that's really yeah.

SPEAKER_05 17:15

And Jackie and the Cedric's from Japan.

SPEAKER_03 17:17

Yeah, we saw them and we played so that that night that we opened, it was Jackie and the Cedric's, Guitar Wolf, the five, six, seven, eights who wow, you know, I love doing you know, they got famous from Kill Bill, yeah. Yeah, and it was they were probably awesome. Those are the ones that I remembered. Teen Generate? Teen Generate, possibly, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 17:39

Possibly I love Guitar Wolf too. Oh my god.

SPEAKER_03 17:42

Well, and watching that dude walking around in the daylight in Bellingham with his uh Elvis and you know his full leather suit and his pompadour. That's pretty cool. Come on, yeah, yeah. That that's that whole that whole thing just totally blew my mind. It was just the coolest thing ever. And even though it was all 60s inspired music, you couldn't honestly say that it was all the same. It was it's not like yeah, it wasn't just a bunch of surf bands. In fact, I would say it's mostly garage bands, yeah. Right? For whatever whatever that means.

SPEAKER_05 18:26

There weren't any surf labels. You know, it was such a like sub, sub, sub genre of the garage thing. So he was the Estris was the one that was mostly putting out surf stuff, and um Johnny from the Phantom Surfers had a little label he would do 45s on and he did some albums too, but there wasn't like a cohesive scene or yeah, you know.

SPEAKER_01 18:49

I was talking about music with my wife the other day, and I said like said that this band has a real nuggets sound, and she laughed so hard and she's like, You're just making up shit. And then somebody else was like, No, that's uh actually a compilation of garage rock hits from like the 60s and things.

SPEAKER_03 19:02

Well, and that's what's funny, is I think you know, that those Nuggets things had started coming out in the 80s when I was in college, so I kind of got a little taste of an you know, and that of course was when the the LA scene was starting to do, you know, that the psychedelic thing.

SPEAKER_05 19:22

Um and you know, the three o'clock and and there were bands from like Italy, like the sick row, like super um you know, that big mushroom page boy haircuts and the clothes and everything. And that was interesting to watch too, because like in the 80s, it was like a lot of and some uh miracle workers here in Portland, yeah, um, where they started, you know, it was real true to like trying to be as authentic as possible and and you know recreate like the 60s garage thing, but like the the more you got into the mid the 90s and the mid-90s, then it became about like oh that's that's just like costume play or whatever. Oh and you start getting like the oblivions and the makers and like getting this like anger, hate, punk shit influence too, you know, it all comes from the same pot of stuff, but um and even like okay, we don't have a bass player, you know, and and kind of like like been fucked up was the object and playing fucked, you know, like creating that whole kind of more chaotic, noisy thing.

SPEAKER_03 20:32

We'd already gotten that out of our system, yeah. You know. Believe me, we well, not entirely, but but just to sort of put it in context, we were in what we what we call our bands before we started the Pilgrims. I mean, we were from a punk rock generation, I suppose.

SPEAKER_05 20:52

The media couldn't even decide what to call it. So either college rock or later alternative rock or American post, you know, we were all influenced by like SST band, you know, and the real um I mean we love the old punk rock stuff too, like English stuff and all that too. But like that's sort of that's what was you know, replacements and Minutemen and X and uh and then the smaller bands that were.

SPEAKER_03 21:20

Sonic Us, butthole surfers, those were the bands that would come through that you would go to see. And but let's just say that Grunge was just starting to sort of, you know, take over. Yeah. And I would say that one of the reasons why we ended up sort of gravitating towards you know the the instrumental stuff is um that we were just kind of done with that sort of aggro scene. That became very male dominated. Yeah. And it was it just no we were I guess we were getting too old for that nonsense. Totally.

SPEAKER_01 22:12

It's like when you uh when you go out to the bar when you're 21, it's way different than when you do it when you're 35. Yeah. You've got it under control. So yeah, we've got to be able to do it.

SPEAKER_03 22:20

You don't have to do Jaeger books. Yeah, we were in our late 20s.

SPEAKER_05 22:23

And they really I don't think there ever really was a gr a grunge band from Portland.

SPEAKER_03 22:28

No. I don't think I don't think there was.

SPEAKER_05 22:31

I mean, there may be a couple tried, but that got any kind of traction. Like which is and that's kind of yeah, and that's yeah, exactly. Everyone's was still just doing their own thing. And we definitely filled that I mean when we started playing, it there was like um it was like uh you know, girls to the front thing, like we had the people were dancing, yeah, and women would be like, Thank you, like you know thank you for creating a safe space for us to have fun.

SPEAKER_03 23:00

So that's something else that you know this is working out well, you know.

SPEAKER_01 23:05

That's way yeah.

SPEAKER_02 23:06

Well seems obvious. I think we should listen to some music. I have so many other questions and I want to keep talking, but uh want to give people a little taste in case they haven't heard of your your rich catalog. And uh like you know, you said Robert, there's a there's a lot to choose from, but what was the first song you'd like to kick us off with?

SPEAKER_05 23:20

Yeah, it was uh uh uh hard to hard to choose. But um just a couple days ago marked uh the five years since the passing of uh Dave Pilgrim. And so uh to start us off, this is kind of one of our first was probably our first song that people really were like, that's that's a great song, you know. And still people surf uh That's the greatest surf song ever written. Or at least in the or in the you know, not in the sixties or something, but it's called Surf Liar. And uh it's and Dave, it's a very Dave song.

SPEAKER_03 23:55

Dave came up with it, and he came to him in a dream. That's right. Oh, wondering he was what he was playing the liar. Yes, yes. Alright, let's give Surf Liar a spin.

SPEAKER_01 26:24

I just want to be able to hear about hear about these juboxes. We're just talking jukeboxes. Yeah, I'm surprised to hear that jukeboxes are actually loud. It makes sense that they would have to be to like be able to hear them.

SPEAKER_03 26:33

I think you'd be stunned.

SPEAKER_05 26:34

Are there any have you like figured out? I mean, you can just keep turning it up and it doesn't distort, or you know, it's just like it's a great sound. I mean or just a brand still around, they're gonna sound really good.

SPEAKER_02 26:48

Are you able to like rig it up so that you can like walk by and like really coolly like bump an elbow and start like an Elvis track or something like that?

SPEAKER_05 26:55

Well, no, I don't rig it that way, but so But you've got the test. It is an antique piece of equipment. So if I'm like, alright, I'm gonna do some kind of like jukebosh sessions here, um I'll turn it on like an hour before it takes a long time to warm up, and um and just have it on like either like the volume already off or really low and let it just run through, run through. So then when I'm ready to really listen, um it doesn't there's some uh you know, I think there's some capacitors that need to be replaced and stuff. So it does occasionally like like that, yeah, and then I just and then it stops. Nice. So it do gets to like to do the Fonz thing. That is really cool.

SPEAKER_02 27:33

People talk about the analog experience being like a a sound thing, but it it's really just the interaction with the physical. That's what makes something like truly analog. You have to you gotta wrestle this bear of a machine in your living room um to get some good tunes. That's really cool.

SPEAKER_01 27:46

I love an old jukebox that's got the cool buttons, you know, like the clear buttons you actually have to push in. They're very tactile.

SPEAKER_03 27:54

I do have to tell one little story, and it was just going back in the time machine one more time. Please. We played at the Purple Onion.

SPEAKER_04 28:03

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 28:04

Which was a a pretty well-known club in the 60s. It was a comedy club and it was all sorts of things.

SPEAKER_05 28:10

Yeah, you can find like uh The Smothers Brothers live at the Purple Onion. Yeah, yeah. It's a great name.

SPEAKER_03 28:15

So San Francisco and the guy that was running the club at the time. Tom Tom Onion.

SPEAKER_01 28:23

Oh my god. Tom P. Onion.

SPEAKER_03 28:26

It feels terrible that I'm biking his last name. Um because he was a he was a one-of-a-kind very interesting guy.

SPEAKER_02 28:35

This would be one of those if you know you know things. People know Tom.

SPEAKER_03 28:38

Yeah, Tom.

SPEAKER_05 28:41

Oh, I know. We're just old.

SPEAKER_03 28:43

Um, you've already confessed your age, so yeah, I know. And uh but we were on tour and we had some 45s, but in reality, it was probably that estrus EP. That was 33. So it was four songs, but it had a quarter inch hole instead of the larger hole.

SPEAKER_05 29:07

And it was 33 and a third instead of 45.

SPEAKER_03 29:10

But Tom insisted on playing it on his jukebox in the club. So he made a larger hole with like a butcher knife, like a jagged something just violent, you know. Till it just barely fit. Very, yeah. And then it um played it double plated.

SPEAKER_05 29:30

Yeah, it played really fast.

SPEAKER_03 29:31

And off off kilter says like a rare.

SPEAKER_05 29:33

Yeah, yeah. It was like warped for him making the big hole. And that, but I mean, you know, it was Andy also really good idea to play it like right while we're setting up to play like right before he played.

SPEAKER_03 29:45

I don't remember when it was, but but that's is that oh my god, what's going on? He was determined. That's amazing.

SPEAKER_02 29:54

What do you think it was about y'all back then that because you you talked earlier about how it was really seeing a real surf band live and seeing the gear and like getting it, like understanding the one-to-one ratio between that sound and that gear? And then we're just talking about you know, people cutting holes and things and having drink boxes. Like, do you think there's something about you as people, as creative people, that are drawn to that sort of like I don't know, the the tone oddity, like something a little bit unusual, something very specific? Like, why what what do you think drew you to that sound and its connection to the gear, you know?

SPEAKER_05 30:24

Like um, well, for me, I'm the I'm the drummer, um, but I love guitars. And I love I mean I love all the instruments. And I think that for me it was the fact that the they make the guitars sound so and the big bass players too. It was so percussive, like that's a percussion instrument, you know. The way like you can hear the guitar picking and and uh um especially in the rhythm guitars, but even the in the leads, you know, and it was just so rhythm rhythmically oriented um as far as like what you're talking about with the gear. Yeah. And um and for drums too, it was you know, these were teenagers mostly who um were in like the high school band and stuff, and that's the kind of drum kit they had, and which was really just like you know, the they were probably used, it was probably from the 50s basic, you know, sort of jazz kit, you know. And uh yeah, it it um I mean there were more you know modern sounding circle fans and stuff, and they use modern gear including modern drums, and it can be fine, but there's just some it's the same thing. Yeah, there's that's it. That's yeah that's it.

SPEAKER_03 31:41

We still sound yeah, we still like the this just the whole idea of you know this being your first band and your first guitar and you know you your parents helped you buy it at Sears or whatever. Um that was a revolutionary period in time, right? When Fender really went into high gear and started cranking stuff out, and you could afford to buy a setup and learn how to play. And that I think that as much as anything is what speaks to us. So making it authentic in that way is just sort of uh I guess an homage to that period in history, but also to that idea that it's your first band. You're just figuring it out, you're writing songs based on like the two or three things that you've learned with your friends, and you're in high school.

SPEAKER_02 32:46

And you know, it's interesting, like I had a similar situation when I picked up the guitar. I was like eighth grade, it was like a Samic. So it was something that you would have bought like Kmart or something like that. And one of the first songs I learned was Wipeout. So it's like that was something I could kind of figure out how to just like bang, you know, like that. That was terribly learned.

SPEAKER_01 33:03

Uh I I got a guitar lesson with a Sears guitar, a tiny little like a mini guitar. Yeah. And uh they taught me the opening tab to Wipeout and Secret Agent Man, and that was all I needed. And I think I learned Smoke on the Water, but just the intro.

SPEAKER_05 33:17

Yeah. I don't know any chords or anything. And then, you know, the the the strings were so thick, like you can't like you know, guitar players like I came after, and you can get into the 70s and 80s and shredding and stuff like that, and they're just like, you know, they hear surf or whatever, and they're they might just be like, well, that's like I mean a lot of it is fast and intense, but you know, they're like it's just it's like a different there's not a lot of bending notes and the because they were like these cable, like you could barely hold it down, you know, if you're yeah, you can't feel your hands got any stronger. Yeah. And so it's a different just a totally different way of playing. We're just intrigued by the whole thing.

SPEAKER_03 34:00

I mean uh when we first started out, obviously it I th I would say we started in those house jam sessions playing songs that were fun to play, but you know, we had grown up with those. Yeah. You know, I grew up here listening to Kissin. Yeah, you know, and so I was I heard I grew up listening to you know, The Ventures and Hearing Wipeout and You know, Tequila, those were in always in rotation. And so it was also very nostalgic, too. That's a big part of the appeal was like, oh I in my mind I go back to what it when I was a kid listening to that music, but I think also in general the style is has just a sort of nostalgia to it too, regardless of when it was done. Like if if in a way that's sort of the st to me that's the standard is tapping into uh that emotion that is makes you feel nostalgic in a p in a good way. And like I say, maybe it's because you know, when you were young and just figuring things out. But I think there's also something to be said for I mean the the Latin influence uh you know of the Southern California scene, you know, those guys they those the first waivers talk about how they were influenced by Dwayne Eddy and basically country stuff.

SPEAKER_05 35:40

Fireballs.

SPEAKER_03 35:41

Yep. And um but clearly like the Spanish guitar influence, which is very romantic, the keys that that we still write songs in are typically those keys that just sound very familiar but also very like you know, you know what I'm saying, like romantic and nostalgic and but even if people don't have the nostalgic thing, like sometimes when we play and it's a bunch of people and they have their little kids, the little kids love it, you know.

SPEAKER_05 36:16

It's just there's something that just you know it's got it's peppy and it's you know I was thinking about this when you were talking earlier about the the unbalanced kind of lineups that Portland's always favored.

SPEAKER_02 36:26

You know, it's they're they're gonna cram genres together, we're not afraid to do that here. But it occurs to me now as you've been going through this that surf can kind of just be a glue in any lineup, like it doesn't it it never seems out of place, it sort of absorbs that shock a little bit in a way that you wouldn't have thought of.

SPEAKER_05 36:42

I would not have thought of such a distinct sound and such a very specific sonic palette being so universal and so almost when you're on the same bill of like you know someone doing like a singer-songwriter solo thing and then like a hardcore band or whatever, you know, and then for all three of them, it's like whoa, this is like listen to that. That's totally different.

SPEAKER_03 37:08

But you know, it was just you know, when we'd start playing on those kind of people just be like, Well, yeah, okay, like you know Yeah, and there's something must be something primal about it that well, and that's that's the other thing too, is like uh going back to us being like in punk bands, let's say, um, we still I mean part of the fun of it too is like you're still playing through a big amp and making a really big sound. Yeah. And so we were into that too. I mean, like putting these huge amps up on and huge speaker cabinets up on stage and three guitars, and we could easily play with a punk rock band and you know match their intensity and their volume, no problem. And so in a way, it's like if if we're trying to sort of characterize our our sound or vibe or attitude, whatever, I felt like we had that sort of punk rock attitude, or I think of like uh you know, one obvious connection that people would have would be the Sonics, but I was thinking of us as like the MC5, you know, kick out the jams motherfucker type attitude.

SPEAKER_01 38:20

Before I knew what surf rock was when I was a little kid, the people I know that were surfers seemed super punk to me. Yeah. So when somebody was like, oh no, this is surf music, I was like, Who? Who surfs to this? Is this definitely not like fucking the dude to point break? Those guys are into like the chili peppers and shit. Yeah, like that's all I was thinking of, just uh the chili peppers.

SPEAKER_05 38:43

Yeah, but you know, no, it's rare to find surfers that live listen to surf.

SPEAKER_03 38:48

But yeah, and the and that's kind of the the the irony too is like when you you know, there are a lot of people that are sort of new to the scene or the genre who are like, well, Dick Dale is the man, you know, because he had that kind of intensity and that aggression and that you know, that huge sound which he you know had a part in creating you know from the ground up, having a you know hundred watt amplifiers and huge speakers and stuff. Um but people conveniently forget that like he actually also sang. Well, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 39:26

Oh, and they also and that his original band in the sixties had three guitars, piano, saxes, like it was a huge band. And he played the trumpet. It's really when he did the trio thing starting in the 80s that it you know he and he's like I you know, sort of repackaged himself and he cut the bullshit. I'm the godfather of no no, we like the lots of plots.

SPEAKER_03 39:48

Yeah, no, we're like yeah, we like the other one with like and and that's that's the part that I think is sort of lost too in the translation is that all of the bands had that lineup. Yeah, because they weren't just playing surf music, yeah, they were playing some high school dance and they were doing all sorts of stuff, yeah. Right, all they were throwing different genres together.

SPEAKER_05 40:17

The the soul thing was just starting to happen, like Ray Charles and I Cantina and and it and um you know the sort of uh um what do you call that revisionist history now is that these bands were playing instrumental surf the whole night. No, but no, it was just it was it it was something they could either fall back on if they got to the place and there wasn't a PA to sing through, which was probably a lot of the time. Sure. Like in a high school or whatever, or that you couldn't hear the singing.

SPEAKER_02 40:49

But again, it also seems like when you lay it out this when you tell these stories, it's very clear where that sort of fits in that world. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 40:56

It was the early 60s and you know, they're playing whatever of a piece.

SPEAKER_03 40:59

Yeah, no, and that's that goes back to how you f how you began, you know, was just that. It wasn't a singular thing, style or thing happening.

SPEAKER_05 41:15

Um And we don't do that. We're also we're also revision. I mean, I would love to do a night where we're like s playing, you know, what I say and songs like that, but um, you know, we're just we're we're just off on our own. And mostly system of a downcoming. And we're not good, we're we're not good singers.

SPEAKER_03 41:33

And Libray, bottom line. But we have plenty of songs with keyboards, for one thing, and occasionally a saxophone. Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_02 41:43

Well, you sometimes get the the spooky uh adjective thrown in the list of adjectives that describe your music too. And again, there's something like that very naturally that connects to, you know.

SPEAKER_03 41:54

Yeah, and that's the part that's that like if you were to ask us how did you come up with that? And we there was again, there was no plan.

SPEAKER_02 42:07

It just had I think when you add some keys to surf, you make a little bit of a it's a little spooky, you know.

SPEAKER_05 42:12

I just think that's that's uh well and there's certain uh certain core progressions and keys and it well, you know, and a lot of it came from we were just like getting into it so hard and listening to so many of the old bands, and it it was all in there already. Yeah, you know, there's this like now they call it like horror surf, and there's like messerchups and ghastly ones and these bands, and and we get limped in lumped into it. We actually I mean our our first uh the one where they cut the hole to put it in the jukebox, that EP had haunted house of rock on it, and that was like our first sort of national international release, this EP. And so terrifying song, yes, and um and so we get that label sometimes and kind of because of our own name, but um I guess I just always thought it was a tone thing.

SPEAKER_02 42:59

Like for my when I see spooky, I'm like, oh, I got I know what that sounds like. Yeah, I never think of it as like conceptual necessarily, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 43:05

So that's kind of what I was getting a small part of uh what we do, yeah. Yeah, that's just how we sound. Yep, exactly, and that's how we sounded from the start, and whether it's because we're from the Pacific Northwest and we're tapped into the same thing as you know, the Sonics, for example, which is kind of dark.

SPEAKER_05 43:24

Um that's part of it, but also I mean it's but I'm saying it's yeah, the sunny California surf, there's plenty of those bands from back then that would have these songs like they're called like Devil Surfer or you know, uh, and put in like spooky sound effects. Cause you know, you hit an E minor chord with the reverb on and you hit the whammy bar, it's sounds pretty and then the monsters theme, I mean yeah, the culture was putting these things together too. In the movies, there's always like the mix with you know, there's um surf girls meet the mon oh man, I'm just My brain's not well.

SPEAKER_02 44:03

I think it's pretty obvious that the devil would be an an incredible surfer. Like if nothing else. No, absolutely not.

SPEAKER_05 44:11

The devil did not go down to the Joker did challenge Batman, though. Yeah. Yeah. In case you're wrong. But there's um but you know, and our actual our conception of the name, which I think came from a combination of of Robert and Dave, uh was not to say it sounds spooky. It was like to make it sound like a sort of like a nerdy biker gang. Like Hell's Angels, Satan's Pilgrims, but like Pilgrims. Bunny Holly. Dave was really in there's like the bubblegum and also all these 60s bands that would have like the matching outfits and cost sometimes even costumes. Like I mean, originally we wanted to look like we wanted to have like buckle shoes and you know knickers and and blunder buses and stuff.

SPEAKER_03 44:58

Yeah, Dave really liked the idea of the pilgrims. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 45:02

And there was a Northwest, there was a Northwest band, I think from Everett or something that didn't make it big, but they had that they were called the Plymouth Rockers.

SPEAKER_02 45:10

Someone beat you to it in this town. I thought there were arrival pilgrim bands broke up.

SPEAKER_05 45:17

This is us like looking back at looking back in all these books and records wrote records and stuff. So yeah. So um and then we realized that like that was gonna cost a lot of money to get those costumes together. So we bought really cheap uh Halloween capes at at um at Halloween, and we don't always wear them, but that was sort of our nice.

SPEAKER_01 45:39

Do you guys still have those capes? The OGs?

SPEAKER_05 45:41

Oh no.

SPEAKER_02 45:42

They're under glass now.

SPEAKER_01 45:44

They've dis they disintegrated.

SPEAKER_05 45:45

I mean we did we in the 90s we did like you know, six, eight-week tours, and you know, we'd be like hanging them out the van to dry, and then the next day and get the smell out of them stuff, and at least I mean the first batch was lost on the highway or like disintegrated. Teleporty in your hand out the window, melted in the dryer. Yeah, like you know, we've gone through we've probably gone through like fifty of them over time. Yeah, and they really they don't make them as well as they used to think now like finding good ones.

SPEAKER_02 46:18

Cape craftsmanship that's put all in an all-time nadir.

SPEAKER_05 46:22

They put all this foam in the collar and it just like doesn't and we're like no, you know, it's really hard to find the like the ones we we need.

SPEAKER_01 46:28

You have to go to a real Satanist to have a good cake.

SPEAKER_03 46:31

We had d so Dave was definitely like he had done the research before we started going down that path. And so yeah, he had the idea for the matching outfits, and he also had, I want to say, I'm giving him credit, Daddy. Tell me if I'm wrong. He had the idea for the white jeans and the red shirt.

SPEAKER_05 46:59

Uh no, I think that the speech. And he found that in a thrift store that has music to watch girls by that we covered on our first record. And it's a they were like a Herb Alp, they were the East Coast sort of Herb Alpert type band without the the Mexican theme, but really groovy instrumental with like horns and everything. He was like the big producer of all the um Frankie Valley and the Four Seasons records and stuff. So on the cover, it's like a 20-piece band, and they're all in these red shirts and white jeans and like white kids. Um it's pretty good. Yeah, that's a pretty cool. And then we put the cape on top of that.

SPEAKER_03 47:45

And and we and we love that song too. Yeah. So I mean that was uh like I was gonna say, the what was fun about doing show those early shows was we could play on a bill with a punk rock band, for example, and then we could and we could play loud and aggressive and like ah, and then we could play music to watch girls by.

SPEAKER_05 48:10

Which is what which is what got us on Estris Records and playing Grad Shock like right off the bat. Like if you had told, I mean Estris was like the the pen, you know, whoa, we could get on it, yeah, we get your band on Estris for that kind of music. That was the top. Yeah, and um we got we were warming up for the Monomen, and Dave from the Monomen is the main guy at Estris. And um, and he watched our set, and um and then, you know, he's like like the Monomen, you would think, okay, he's gonna like like our loud, heavy songs, you know, the high energy stuff, and he's like, Man, you guys play man music to watch girls by? I want to do a record with you.

SPEAKER_02 48:49

Like that was that was the song. You never know which one was gonna and you were all playing at a time when there was literally a guy from the label in the audience. Like you were like it was like a showcase, you know. That's another very 60.

SPEAKER_04 48:59

Well, his band was to have happened, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 49:01

And the Mono Men were great too. I mean, they were they were like the most rock star guys that didn't look like rock stars, yeah. I would say like they didn't have any pretense or any outfit or anything, they just were they were the MC five actually. Yeah, they were a great with great songs. So they they certainly yeah, were a band that we were listening to too um and getting inspiration from for sure. Like, how do we how if we're gonna do this, how are we you know, what is it gonna look like?

SPEAKER_02 49:42

Well, speaking of great songs, we gotta play some music. I think we we've really wetted people's appetite. What was the second track that y'all wanted to share this evening?

SPEAKER_05 49:50

Okay, um, so I uh thought that the next thing should be uh after um Dave uh moved on from us, our our uh earthly uh uh stronghold here. Um our next guitarist who was a great friend of old friend of Dave's and old friend of ours, that we really again like we didn't plan it and we never really asked him, but it just was like the natural thing was um Garrett from the Ghastly Ones, and he was very excited to uh to play with us. And um so I brought a song that uh from the we have one record, it's a four-song EP uh so far with him on it, but we're working on one right now. Oh we got about six or eight songs done, and uh the rest just we just yeah, we'll be finishing that up in the next year. Uh so uh this is called uh Crying in a Storm. It's a cover of a Japanese uh song that um by Emmy Jackson in the 60s, and six 1965, and uh we just loved well the backup band was great, and um and we loved the melody, and uh he kind of uh there's a surf-related uh style of um music called Alecki, which was really inspired by the ventures touring in Japan so much and um Japanese doing the same thing, buying a guitar and learning to play with the ventures, yeah. And um it sounds very very ventures-y, but it has uh it has some like country elements in it too, which sounds strange. Um, but um, because the ventures grew out of country in a lot of ways, too. Um and uh so it's sort of like it's a surf song, but he does an Alecky style uh guitar solo in the middle. So check that out.

SPEAKER_02 51:48

Awesome, awesome. Let's give it a spin.

SPEAKER_03 54:38

One of the things sort of intrigues me about the style is that if you are sort of trying to emulate that innocence, let's say, and and there is in my mind, for me, there is like a format to it. There is a certain pattern to it. It doesn't have to be that way all the time, but there is a certain I mean when we write songs, there just is a certain sort of pattern or structure that we typically typically start with just because we it's ingrained, right? It's just second nature. But um I think of it as just you know, jumping off the Japanese theme, I can I like to think of it as like a haiku. There's a structure to it. And in theory, if that's what you dedicate your life to, how many thousands of those could you write? Right. And how do they change over the years or and do they have to? The point is, is like they can sort of be anything, it can be about anything, but there's still a structure there and it's and it's somewhat limited, and it's and it's not at least in my mind. But that's there's a certain freedom in that too, if that makes sense.

SPEAKER_02 56:09

Absolutely. We talk with artists all the time about like the creative constraints. Something that you something some limitation that forces you to work around it, and that opens up some door. And structures another version of that where you're giving yourself you know a narrow starting point and then trying to find the creativity and the album within that.

SPEAKER_05 56:27

And again, it's going back to being being teenage music, that I mean, that some of these teenagers came up with amazing ideas and and execution of these things, but you know, it's rock and roll with uh some like RB, you know, extra R and B soul and some Latin and um Middle Eastern and you know, and again, I go back to like the school but like the school band influence. I mean, there's like you know, an occasional like um you know, the breeze and I, or like songs that they probably played in band, you know, or like let's make it surf, you know, because we know the chords already. Or, you know, um and uh that they didn't and you know, so they weren't gonna take it into some like far out, you know, prog. I mean, people have done it since they've there's surf-ish surf influence bands that do real proggy crazy time signatures or more like metal or more like this or more like that, but at the core there is still, yeah, there's just like yeah, I think you're trying to be much more like punk rock. Like there's just like there's certain certain parts of it that make it what it is.

SPEAKER_03 57:44

Yeah, and how yeah, how do you get the most uh expression or emotion with the simplest phrasing and the fewest notes? That's sort of like that's my sort of haiku analogy too, is like the simplicity of it is what you're always uh searching for. What is like the simplest way to evoke this certain feeling?

SPEAKER_02 58:09

So when you think about your career in Saints Pilgrims, what is the thing that you feel that you reached for that was like beyond those structures? Like what did you find within that kind of creative constraint that you were describing that you made your own?

SPEAKER_03 58:30

Well I mean the first thing comes to mind is that project with Thomas Lauderdale. Yeah. I mean, that and that is literally like going down a different path.

SPEAKER_05 58:41

I thought about bringing a song from that too. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 58:45

Yeah, everybody should go and check that out. Extraordinary.

SPEAKER_03 58:48

Yeah, so I mean, as far as like pushing pushing our limits and our boundaries, and I give all credit to Dave because he had the knowledge and the skill to transcribe a surf version of Rhapsody and Blue. That was Thomas' idea, and he gave it to Dave, and Dave was the one person in our band that could pull that off.

SPEAKER_05 59:13

Dave's mom was a music teacher in Portland Public Schools, and he learned piano at a really long like early age and just had a real gift. And um, so he could talk, so we're all kind of like hacks. We've learned a lot. Seriously, but yeah, especially back then, and so he was like the real musician that could like talk to somebody like Thomas, who's also a real you know uh classically trained. Classically trained, there we go, yeah, type to pull these things off, and then he could kind of translate to us in like street terms, you know. Like I mean what we had um we were recording with Thomas, we had like sheet music up. I can I mean I could read, you know, I mean I could I could count bars, you know, and uh and be like, okay, when it's this stuff's written in there, I know that that's when I do that, you know. Um, you know, but he could kind of you know talk it in both languages.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:10

Yeah, he he that's cool. Yeah, I mean he transcribed like the most important, most lyrical sections of all the songs that we did on the Thomas Lauderdale Meets the Pilgrims. And that is one thing that I looking back at and and thinking about and listening to his songs, his solos, is that he wasn't just playing like a riff. He didn't just like find a cool guitar part and figure out how to repeat it necessarily. To me, his his his parts that he would play were almost more like someone who was singing over a song, over a melody, if that makes sense. Like he didn't follow sp even though he knew all that, you know, the blues and the you know, those sort of and and you know, R and B and Soul, all of those ways of playing, um which definitely came out in his playing. The notes that he chose to play, I think, are super impressive in that they really do sort of mimic more like what a vocalist would do on top of a song. Yeah. Which which is why I mean, in my mind, it stands out.

SPEAKER_05 1:01:44

I mean, we're in it for the melody mostly. And we have a couple, whatever, like you know, uh workout, whatever, where it's just all energy or something. But usually we try to really have like a catchy melody. Like we're all into that, and um we all learned a lot from him, and but um everyone in the band has has written like catchy melodies. I mean, I think people when like it's not so much like our uh uh you know prowess on our you know uh being virtuosic players or whatever. The thing that gets told back to me the most is that like you guys write great songs. Yeah. And like we can't ask for anything. I mean that's just like the best compliment. That's as good as it gets. Yeah, yeah. Like I, you know, that one just stayed with me or whatever, you know.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:36

So like that's when it boils down to it when you're getting together, you just like you want the song. That's all you want. Like that that's the sum total of your goals. Like, it's not like any good, you know. Uh me and Nate all playing, we play in bands and have been around musicians, and just like there's times when I don't I don't know if it's any good, you know what I mean? Like it often feels like it's not, and then so to get that validation is like that's well and I always praise from Sarah.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:00

You know, from from the from day day one, I felt like Dave sort of set the the standard. Oh yeah. And and he knew how to play that style.

SPEAKER_05 1:03:18

And well he knew how to play it and he knew the equipment the most out of any of us, and he knew how we should record it and how it should be meant, you know, I mean all of that, and we spent so much uh time with him and learned from him and hopefully were able to keep uh keep it going with it, you know. We weren't sure when he passed away, you know, we were like, man, maybe you know, should we just hang it up or whatever? But uh it's been really great that um the only you know the the the one good thing to come out of that is uh having Garrett in the band and then to feel like we are st like we are taking it and still growing and that we're doing okay. Uh you know, and and keep in in uh and it's you know it sounds corny and everything, but it's well not really.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:09

I think I I think you you've touched on what another really important part of music in our lives, which is to help be bridge you through difficult things. Yeah, especially when the loss is so meaningful to the music itself, I think that makes perfect sense that it would you know carry you along that way. And I'm sure that informs the emotionality of the songs that are coming out of this period too. I'm sure the listener is gonna hear that.

SPEAKER_05 1:04:33

And what's really fun is you know, if you make up make up a little part of a song or make up a song, and then the band takes it, we work through it and everything, and uh that and then either one of us or collectively we're like they would have really liked it, like you know that he would have really liked this one, you know.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:52

Or he would have done that there, you know. That's that's always that's always gonna, you know, believe it or not, we do all we do are influenced by our own songs, or we're having you know, it's always in in our head in some form or fashion, right? Um so yeah, no, we definitely uh still think about him all the time and um whether we're playing or or writing that that's the standard that we're trying to meet for sure.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:25

That's great. I think I think the the beautiful tribute to a dear friend.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:30

Yeah, and I just want to add too that that while I say that he transcribed stuff, he never like necessarily said, Oh, you need to play this this way. So that's the other part that why we st stayed together and why we're still doing it is that it feels like we are all contributing and and it's a pretty organic, pretty natural thing. Like I didn't know. What I didn't know. Yeah. I just would try to come up with a part that sounded cool to me that seemed to fit. And I really didn't listen to any of the early stuff in the same way that you know Scott and Dave were or you were, Teddy. Uh I was just sort of along for the ride, and yet I felt like I could just f so on somehow on my own figure out or or I would I would start messing around literally like trying to find something on the fretboard, you know, that would sound cool. And then in retrospect, it's like, oh, well, that kind of sounds like this song. And so somehow I, you know, whether it was already like I say, I grew up on it and somehow was locked away and just got released or whatever. And or just pulsing in all of our blood, just waiting waiting to be activated. Well, and then and then so to to you know, present day because we're still playing those songs that that Dave recorded, and you know, maybe I'm doing, you know, the lead, or Scott's doing the lead, or Garrett's doing the lead. Um I've sort of now I'm learning and appreciating all of that that he brought to the table from from the very start. I I I I admired it then, but I have learning those parts that he played has been uh really a really amazing experience.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:48

Yeah, I can only imagine, you know, like learning very cool. It's a very cool experience that you guys are going through. Um there's one more band that y'all brought to play, and we're gonna we're gonna reach into the younger generation, I I understand. Tell us a little bit about this this third song that you you brought this evening.

SPEAKER_05 1:08:07

Okay. Um the uh the name of the band is the Von Dwells. And uh they have been around for really just like about a year, maybe a little more. Um and uh they're three-piece, which a lot of modern surf bands are. And uh they they use like fuzz, they're they're like making their own uh sound, you know. Uh I think. Yeah. And there's um another band called The Valiants, I should mention too. They're working on a a new record right now, and they have one that came out in the nineties, but they actually played with us back in the nineties when they were still in high school. Um in Salem. And uh we got them on a show at I think at the Crystal Ballroom or Burbotties or somewhere. And Barbadis Burbotties. And we uh I think we like promised Wick we wouldn't have any beer in our green room or something so that they because they were all in high school and anyway. Um there was some. I'm sure we found a green room around that. But uh um so this is Devon Dwell's.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:19

Awesome. Can't wait to hear it.

SPEAKER_03 1:12:20

Let me guys very let me know when you guys are ready. Super helpful. Where's the hit? Oh man. You know what I listened to on the way over? Uh, because one of my uh I was at a job the other day and the client mentioned Dawn of the Good Times. Oh yeah. And I know that was one of Dave's, and so I listened to Dawn of the Good Times on the way over. That guitar player.

SPEAKER_05 1:12:45

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:12:46

Whoa! Oh my gosh. And by the way, I want to say, uh just hearing, you know, guitar sounds and trying to figure out how to record them. That guy that had to have been in a room with a mic way far away.

SPEAKER_05 1:13:04

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:13:05

You can't get that, that's not an effect. That is a room sound guaranteed. Like not only is loud as shit, which is so loud. Yeah, so totally overdriven, but not with anything other than we're cranking it up, but you can totally hear the room sound that sounds so good.

SPEAKER_05 1:13:25

When you have, and I it has to be well, riot on the seaside strip was my Don in the Good Times uh homage. Yeah. Sorry, we're talking.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:35

No, no, this is great because like our younger musician listeners are gonna be like, this is what they have to look forward to. Like they're you know, in a few decades, they're gonna like dial into the room sound of a very specific guitar and they're gonna like lose their minds.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:48

One of my favorite uh connected bands in the Pilgrim's universe is the Pinnacles. Man, those guys fucking so cool. Oh yeah. That's awesome.

SPEAKER_03 1:13:58

Yeah, Dave and Scott and John.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:01

Yeah. Uh excellent, excellent. Yeah, we're the two non-pinnacles here in the room. Yeah. You know, you're still part of the family. I'm sure you guys have seen them play. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_03 1:14:14

Of course.

SPEAKER_05 1:14:14

But we we had a record uh Psych Exploitation that we did in 2009, which is like our uh more like uh you know, Sunset Strip, Nuggetsy, you know, garage and psychedelic um 1967 attempt, yeah, 66, 67, and um which a lot of people really love, which is great. It's still it's still really popular and uh definitely not like a pure surf record. But um, you know, so I we we did that and the pinnacle started the next year, so I would say like that was the the the true genesis.

SPEAKER_03 1:14:55

They're like, we're gonna keep playing like this. These are cool songs, yeah. And the sound is really cool and keyboards, and yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:01

Well, there's so many, like, you know, I think you two take credit for the pinnacles, is exactly what I'm saying.

SPEAKER_05 1:15:07

Yeah. Um but you know, reverb's cool and everything, but if you can fool around with space echo and uh and the whole time we were talking about you know, then it it's it is fun.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:20

Reverb is the the forgotten character in our in the story of what's so cool and like eternal about surf music. It's just like people fucking love reverb. There's not a person or a genre that does it. Even if they don't know what it is.

SPEAKER_03 1:15:31

Exactly, exactly. Even though they don't know what it is.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:34

And it's also the one of the more forgiving tones, too. So you don't, you know, you could be uh a hack like me. You could be a scrummer. People would love it.

SPEAKER_05 1:15:41

Yeah. Yeah, it's no, it definitely makes guitar playing. It makes it more fun, it makes it easier, covers up your Drew and I saw a band the other day that had really heavy reverb on a tambourine.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:54

Whoa. That made it have like almost like an echo effect. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:16:00

Well, there's there's a guy that does that does videos on, you know, like Instagram, and you'll see uh different mic setups for different eras. And there's one that's like probably only two mics and heavy reverb. And it's like, oh my god, that sounds incredible. Yeah. And I of course I'm forgetting what genre that's supposed to represent.

SPEAKER_05 1:16:21

I think it's was it the Phil Spectre one? Like he's on the drums, right?

SPEAKER_03 1:16:26

Easy, easily could be, but it's it's a it's a guy, it's a you know contemporary deal, but he's he's basically showing you how the sound of drums evolved too from decade to decade. And you know, in other words, like songs that you've listened to a thousand times, this is why they sound the way they sound. It has a large part due to how put a mic right on a drum.

SPEAKER_05 1:16:52

Yeah, yeah, yeah. How the drums were mic. So it's like, do you put your ear next to the snare drum? Right, you know. That's how you got that like warm sort of sound. Like, you know, like I saw not a cool Instagram thing, but like a lame one. It was like, you know, this is how we mic the foo fighters in the studio, and they got the all these mics, and they were just right up on the speaker cone.

SPEAKER_03 1:17:14

Like a six pack of mics.

SPEAKER_05 1:17:17

It's like back it up like five feet.

SPEAKER_02 1:17:21

I would say unintentionally, a damning indictment of the foo the foo frighters right there. If people have listened to this entire episode, they know that that's a announcement. They're my favorite man. Take that, Dave. Yeah. I know he's listening. Yeah. He loves the show, actually.

SPEAKER_05 1:17:37

No, I mean, for what they do, I that might be the exact right thing. Yeah. They're not trying to sound like the early 60s, they're trying to sound now.

SPEAKER_02 1:17:46

Right, they're trying to sound like whatever they want to be next. So that makes sense that they would kind of try to keep up. Okay, so before we let y'all go, I want to circle back to this house where where it all started. So, like in in in our time, we there was this house on Deacum and MLK that would host shows. Uh who knows how long it was around, but it's been around for at least like 15, 15, 18 years we've been here. So that was like our version of it. And when you went in there, you saw some amazing music, but it was also kind of a shithole. So let's go back to that 1991 house when this all starts. What's how how funky was that house? And I'm not talking about music.

SPEAKER_03 1:18:21

You know, it was in Labs edition. Oh, excellent. You guys were classy gentlemen.

SPEAKER_05 1:18:28

Yeah, I mean it was a huge score. Yeah. I mean, it was like not even like well, we could find one like the I mean, it was it was less that we were looking for a house, it was like, oh, that just came open. Yeah, Robert T.

SPEAKER_03 1:18:43

Yeah, well, no, I just pure luck, um, one of my workmates uh found this house. It was supposed to be a duplex. She was gonna move in with her boyfriend and wanted to know if I was interested in taking a room in this house, and I was like, sure, sounds great. And then she broke up with her boyfriend, and turns out that it wasn't really a duplex, it was the whole house. So I thought, well, but this is too good an opportunity to let go. So I reached out to people that I knew, and uh that's that's how I think it was marketed as a duplex because it had four wait three floors and a basement.

SPEAKER_05 1:19:30

And um in the back of the second floor there was another kitchen. Did it have a separate entrance? No, it didn't have a staircase or anything. But anyway, and then there was an uh an attic up above too, unf unfinished.

SPEAKER_02 1:19:46

But I guess the fact that it had this other kitchen area so it's like in aggregate, it was two places, but huge in one place.

SPEAKER_03 1:19:53

Yeah, full basement that we could, you know, build a practice space in.

SPEAKER_05 1:19:59

Yeah, we did some records in that basement too.

SPEAKER_03 1:20:02

Yeah. Um okay, so this was a this was a this was a home. It was a compound. Yeah. Yeah, it was it was just it was more of a deep. I mean, there are and and don't and the Lats is a funny neighborhood because it's it definitely had its grittier, it definitely had an edge to it. I mean, cars were getting broken into weekly on our street, um, and car stairs getting stolen, just to give you an idea of what era that was. You know, remember that.

SPEAKER_05 1:20:34

And then on either side of us, and I think this may have been what happened with our the house we eventually moved into, but either side of us, there was like it was so uh Portland like and sort of back in time too, but these you know, senior citizens, really elderly people, and on one side as a woman, so she took in borders because she had this big house, you know, like her husband passed away or whatever. So you had these other old guys living with her, and I think she cooked for him and stuff. And I think it was a similar thing on the house on the other side, it was a older couple in their eighties or whatever, you know, it's just like we'd watch them every morning, they'd come out to the birthday box like they barely, you know.

SPEAKER_03 1:21:27

There was a yeah, there was an old uh Chinese couple who ran a restaurant in Old Town. Yeah. And Lads was uh a friend of mine told me that he used to go to church in Lads. It was the first neighborhood where Asian people were allowed to buy houses, and there's a uh Chinese language church, yeah. Um and as it turns out, the people that lived there before us were uh more were scarier than we were.

SPEAKER_05 1:22:04

So actually, even though we had you know loud music and loud parties and Dave would, you know, well not we were we were one block off of we were one block, it was it was the edge of loud, we were it was uh 12th and then our street. So on 12th, um there are all these uh as you're like coming up to Hawthorne from the south, there's all these big sort of apartments and you know and those were all older Chinese people. And it was it was a whole like thing, and they could go out and get the ginkgo off the trees, and they own the all the market, all the convenience stores around there and all the sort of small businesses. There was a little restaurant where juniors is now that was like a little like mom and pop two table, you know, chow mein place, you know. Um Wow.

SPEAKER_02 1:23:00

What what a time to be in the neighborhood, you guys. Yeah, yeah. Did they did you ever consider going by a name the name the Lads Lads?

SPEAKER_05 1:23:06

Yeah, that was I think Dave made that joke a long time ago.

SPEAKER_02 1:23:10

Oh shit.

SPEAKER_03 1:23:11

Great months, and by the way, division was nothing like it is now. Uh it was pretty gritty, uh, believe it or not, and at that time. But um, and I wouldn't say like we had a lot of parties. No. But that one or two a year or something. Yeah, and ultimately why we did start playing in clubs was because we had, was that a New Year's Eve party?

SPEAKER_05 1:23:39

Yeah, and it was snowing like crazy.

SPEAKER_03 1:23:40

And it snowed close to a foot. Yeah. And still we had a couple hundred people showing up at our house and just about destroyed it.

SPEAKER_05 1:23:51

People were it was very animal. I mean, somebody found a big cardboard box and they were riding down our stairs in the box like a sled and but like flipping over like someone broke their neck, you know, just crazy stuff. Someone broke their neck? No, they could have, though. Easily could have. But somebody who's still buried in the somebody who was one of like probably the only people that we didn't know. We played and then we stopped, took a break, have a beer or whatever, and they ran in and grabbed a base and ran out the front door with it. But the only stranger in that part of the party took off after them, and um our friends like tackled them in the street, and we we didn't lose the beat. Beat him to death. But that was that. That was when we kind of realized it's a different time.

SPEAKER_03 1:24:37

Maybe we shouldn't replace anymore. But that was the last part of blood. That was the last house party show party, yeah. The last time we had to do it.

SPEAKER_02 1:24:46

End of an era. Wow. Epic snowstorm.

SPEAKER_03 1:24:50

Probably. Yeah. I mean, it was yeah. So that's when we were like, oh, well, this is super fun, but I guess we need to actually play in clubs now. And we did we did like uh fundraisers at first.

SPEAKER_05 1:25:04

Um and then once Thomas Lauderdale saw us, I mean that that that album, we started recording that in 1996. I was gonna say, yeah, that was the labor of like that was a couple of years leading up to that of him. Um he put us on at cinema twenty-one. We there was uh benefit with um the Del Rubio triplets who were in the Pee Wee Hermons. Yes, from Book Club.

SPEAKER_01 1:25:28

I just watched that at the Tomorrow Theater this year with Dank.

SPEAKER_05 1:25:31

Yeah, for like a no the it was a no on nine benefit. So it was this measure nine, which was like it's illegal to be gay in Oregon. Um and uh and he and also um he got us into all this like sort of high class stuff, like he does. Like, I got you guys a gig at the on the roof of Yam Hill Marketplace for Gus Van Zant or something, you know. Like Okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:25:52

We need Andy Nate and I need we need more people like that that are putting us in in whatever weird like we need people who can get us into weird spots. I know a guy. You yeah, we need we need a guy. We need a guy. Y'all had a guy, that's cool.

SPEAKER_05 1:26:05

So um, yeah, anyway.

SPEAKER_01 1:26:08

So it was it's my guy wants us to do a show at the foster taco bell after this show. We got the wrong guy, put it that way. He wants us to do a podcast, air quotes, for him and it's we have the wrong guy with our shoes off.

SPEAKER_05 1:26:21

But even like a couple years ago, that's still that dichotomy of us lives on like via Thomas and Pink Martini, we're playing at the Hollywood Bowl, right? I yeah, I know, I read about that incredible. Which is like we didn't even know that was a possibility in our lives. I mean, never could it be could this be on our bucket list? No. I guess it's on our bucket list, you know. Amazing, and so but of course, and you and we're like you know, you think you know, we'd be like, oh, nervous and like we need to rehearse and everything, but instead we decided it'd be a really good idea the night before that we should play at a punk club in San Pedro called the Sardine, which holds like a hundred people, and um ended up playing like two hours. I ended up getting like bleeding blisters on my hands and just like had the best time, but then I was like, oh wait, yeah, so Hollywood Bowl.

SPEAKER_02 1:27:14

How was it at Hollywood Bowl? Were you just all taped up?

SPEAKER_05 1:27:18

Taped up, just like taped all day. But um it was insane. I mean it was it was I remember every second of it, but while it was happening, it was just You just blacked out up there. It you know, and at the same time, you only see like the first three rows and Yeah, but you're carrying all that that there's a lot all your associations are right there, you know.

SPEAKER_02 1:27:40

There's a lot, but it was uh we pulled it off, I think. Very cool.

SPEAKER_04 1:27:44

And it was fun.

SPEAKER_03 1:27:45

It was an amazing experience. The yeah, the the the people um behind the scenes there were super cool to us. Um made us feel very welcome and uh it was

SPEAKER_05 1:28:00

And it was magical experience. August 24th, I think, is the day. Which is the same day that the Beatles played at the Hollywood Bowl in 1964.

SPEAKER_03 1:28:10

That's what's crazy, is so when you're when you're backstage in your little room and they've got monitors so you can see who's on stage and so forth. They also when there's they they splice in uh trivia about the Hollywood Bowl. Oh, I love that. It also it it includes, you know, basically you you realize you are when you play there that you are in the registry.

SPEAKER_01 1:28:40

Like you become one of the trivia questions? Yes. So in perpetuity, you are in. Oh my god, there's a secret. I mean, that's that's when it really hits. Oh, amazing. I love this. No, that's awesome.

SPEAKER_03 1:28:58

It was it was really cool. That's very cool.

SPEAKER_05 1:29:01

Yeah, we'll be always grateful for that. But that was like from the very beginning, even back in the 90s when we were recording it. He was like, once we put this out, like or no, we wouldn't have said that in the 90s, but it more than 10 years before the record came out. He's like, I really want you to play at the Hollywood Bowl. I really want to introduce you guys, like playing in the Hollywood Bowl. That's what I'm saying.

SPEAKER_02 1:29:22

And then we also got the wrong guys, Andy.

SPEAKER_05 1:29:24

And we also found, you know, this of course we had to nerd out, and there was like, you know, why MCA presents, you know, why days at the Hollywood Bowl in like 1963 before the Beatles that was like a whole day of bands and uh but mostly surf bands, like the Surfaris and Eddie and the Showman and um the Beach Boys, of course, and uh but also like um uh like Headhunter and the Cannibals. No. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:29:59

Um bands that sounded like that, at least.

SPEAKER_05 1:30:02

Yeah, yeah. Yeah. And like uh Latino uh garage bands and so anyway. Very cool. Cannibal and the headhunters. I switched that up. I have great names in the surf and garage world.

SPEAKER_02 1:30:16

Like we uh other genres could take a take a lesser.

SPEAKER_04 1:30:20

They have the original version of um uh the Wilson Pickett uh Land of a Thousand Dancers.

SPEAKER_05 1:30:34

There you go. Ah, okay. There you go. There the original.

SPEAKER_02 1:30:37

Oh, that's a jam. Yeah. Can you imagine writing that song? Just like that you're the first one to be a sort of sort of sort of side. And you're like 15? Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:30:45

Incredible. Oh fucking amazing, amazing stuff.

SPEAKER_02 1:30:49

What would be what would be like the song that you wish you'd written? What's the what's the song that if you could say that that was mine and you you could take all of our collective memory and we all thought it was yours, what would be the song that you would commandeer?

SPEAKER_01 1:31:06

For me, it would be fuck the pain away by Peaches. You would take that for yourself. I would love to have been the one who wrote that one.

SPEAKER_02 1:31:12

That's that's uh actually that's a pretty pretty pretty good right uh way to think about this this challenge, you know. It doesn't have to be your ultimate all-time favorite song. No, no. What's the song that would do you the best? You know, like what what's the song do you think that would really complete the essence of you? And I think Peaches for you, Andy, is exactly right. Yeah.

unknown 1:31:31

Man.

SPEAKER_03 1:31:32

Well, I mean, I can't help but just think of you know some of my favorite songs, sure. And the ones that we like one of the first songs that we covered and would play and still love plays uh Morpheus. Oh yeah. Which is one of those like how do you say the most with the least kind of songs for sure.

SPEAKER_02 1:31:57

Um who's the who does the original of Morpheus? The Toads. The Toads. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:32:02

From New Jersey. But a lot of groups covered it, I want to say, over time. And then famously from the Matrix soundtrack. Maybe I'm thinking of maybe Moondog more so, which is also another great one.

SPEAKER_05 1:32:15

That might have to be mine, actually. Yeah. Um a lot of people covered that one. Yeah. It's too, I couldn't. I mean, I messed up cannibal in the headhunter. I can't think of a song. I mean, it my brain is just like there's too many. Um but yeah, Morpheus is like I mean it's a two-note at least verse part, whatever you call it verse the first part.

SPEAKER_03 1:32:40

It kind of like, yeah, how do you capture this feeling?

SPEAKER_05 1:32:48

Well, but like our one of our first songs uh called Vampiro, you know, like you know, like people like, oh, it's just like they only play like three chords. That song's one chord, the whole song.

SPEAKER_02 1:33:01

So people never actually complained about three chords. Like, I feel like our the board's greatest songs have like three chords. Like, who was ever bitching about that? I feel like that's a that's a straw man.

SPEAKER_01 1:33:13

That was a fake complaint by music uh journalists in the 90s.

SPEAKER_02 1:33:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:33:17

And that was Robert Kreiscout, he bitched about it, but he's the only one cut the three chords in the truth for country music. I mean, it's a pr uh it's like a mark of a project. Exactly.

SPEAKER_02 1:33:27

It's a can yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:33:28

And it was one that I think we just kind of were goofing around. We had a regular practice schedule and we were just sort of warming up, and you know, sort of like how Booker T and the MGs would be goofing around.

SPEAKER_05 1:33:42

Getting ready for a session. The group writing thing that was really a warm-up.

SPEAKER_03 1:33:46

Yeah, so it was like, oh, you know, here's a guitar part and here's a bass part, and and that it kind of wrote itself.

SPEAKER_05 1:33:55

And then this band Los Acapulco from Mexico covered it on their first album. And so it's it's great when we go Mexico, Mexico City is just like the greatest for us. I mean, we love it. I mean, I think it's the greatest period where it's up there, but um by virtue of them covering like so many people thought it was their song, and then when they realized it was us, it was almost like we were I mean, it it's just like we were in we're in.

SPEAKER_03 1:34:25

We've become uh La Familia, they're part of La Familia, uh which we're very grateful for because uh they're the best.

SPEAKER_02 1:34:37

Um I'm really really excited to hear that y'all are putting together some new songs. I'm pumped about that. My only like request as a as a fan is I I want you to guys, you know how like a lot of surf songs in the 60s had like that Big Bopper kind of voice guy that would do some like say something at the beginning, like let's go surfing. You know, some I want you to have like one line of that guy at the beginning of every song. Okay. No other lyrics but just that guy doing like Big Bopper shit.

SPEAKER_05 1:35:02

Jordan and I have this running joke and we keep trying to think of like new things to think of. So this yeah, these songs aren't as well known, but there's a ton of uh old surf songs from the 60s where um they say something, but it's like some kind of like like this like migraine. Yeah, exactly. I want something very weird. I want something we're like we're like like for our age and everything, and like like Bersidis, you know, surf percitus.

SPEAKER_02 1:35:31

I want I want that.

SPEAKER_03 1:35:32

I want that's like incredible Plant's fashionist diverticulosis very thick toenail. Yeah, poor and pork and poor Garrett, too, who who had to be the one to do like the most daunting part of uh surfer rhapsody and blue.

SPEAKER_05 1:35:58

Yeah, he had to cover all of Dave's parts. Well, let's also he came into the band, you know, and he it wasn't it's not necessarily like he's becoming Dave or whatever. It's not a tribute thing, because we actually what's been really nice is like Robert said, he's learned some of Dave, like we they've sort of sort of dis disseminated across the group.

SPEAKER_03 1:36:22

Yeah, like I want to do this song. This I really connect emotionally to this song. I want to learn that part, I want to learn how to play that part, even though it you know but we're not trying to do it the same exact way we did it in 1994, and Garrett just plays Dave's part.

SPEAKER_05 1:36:37

Like it's more than that. But the fact he I mean, it's really uh uh humbling, but you know, I mean uh he knows more of our songs than we do. I mean he's he's learned them, he learned them all before he it uh while Dave was still like alive and kick in. So he can't do it. He knows they want to correct you guys and we're like wait, how does that go? He'll be showing us. But he really, I mean, he's worked really hard to um well he's worked really hard, period, uh, which is really amazing. Um we're super excited. We sure aren't paying him enough. And that will and that will never change. We are super never changed. We're not paying any of us, but we are super grateful, appreciative, and everything else. I mean, we're like if it had to stop tomorrow, we'd all be like totally open just like that. Was great. And we like we played four times last year. We did a ton the year before, yeah, like touring nationally and stuff. It's just kind of like whatever comes our way, if it works out with our jobs and families and all that, but it's like there's no four Hollywood Bulls, that's a hell of a year, you know.

SPEAKER_02 1:37:59

You know what I mean? Like uh yeah, I know it's quality, not quality.

SPEAKER_05 1:38:09

Sounds fun. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:38:11

That's where we're you know, it's not like man, I wish we were this or wish we were that.

SPEAKER_02 1:38:14

Well, you guys are you guys are in the Oregon Hall of Fame. You guys are like legit Hall of Famers. Like that's you know, here you've earned it. Um yeah, and we're uh we're big fans. We're super grateful that there's new music ahead and for everything you've given us. And and thank you both for hanging out and and being on the show and fun, thank you for sharing some cool tunes. Uh we appreciate it. Uh people can catch you here in the greater Portland area in June for the well, it's actually in Wilhelmina, Oregon.

SPEAKER_05 1:38:42

Willamina, okay. The uh Wildwood Festival.

SPEAKER_02 1:38:45

Wildwood Festival. It's a good ticket.

SPEAKER_01 1:38:47

We've been asked. Uh if you don't have tickets already, jump on it. I think they're down to less than 50. That's going to sell out.

SPEAKER_05 1:38:53

And we're playing Friday night. Uh but stay the whole weekend. Yeah, it sounds like if you're not, I think we're also going to be the next night we'll be in Astoria, since we're already kind of over there.

SPEAKER_01 1:39:05

Nice. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:39:06

Uh so we're making a weekend of it. Um, and there may be something else later in the summer.

SPEAKER_02 1:39:12

Very cool. A lot to keep track of. You guys are all over the typical places across the internet. Also, love to compliment bands on websites. When bands have great websites, you guys have an excellent website. So yeah.

SPEAKER_06 1:39:23

Take a spin.

SPEAKER_02 1:39:24

Very informative. A lot to learn there, a lot to like dig into. Thank you. And after listening to this, everyone's gonna want to listen to your whole catalog, but they're also gonna like go like 40 years back in time and start digging through, starting in the 60s. So thanks for sharing a lesson and sharing your experiences and and doing this with us. We appreciate it. It's up to 60 now.

SPEAKER_05 1:39:43

60 years back in time. Yeah, yeah. Uh yeah, I mean it's crazy. When we started the it was 30 years after like the original beginning of surf music, yeah. And now that's more than 30 years ago.

SPEAKER_02 1:39:58

Yeah, that's wild.

SPEAKER_05 1:39:59

It to the 90s, like when we started, you know what I mean. So, yeah, it's just it's mind-blowing.

SPEAKER_02 1:40:04

Yeah, and it already seemed like you were dipping into nostalgia 30 years ago.

SPEAKER_05 1:40:08

Oh, yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_02 1:40:10

Time is a flat circle, you know. That's right.

SPEAKER_01 1:40:13

That's right.

SPEAKER_02 1:40:14

Well, we want to thank everyone listening this week too. Appreciate you tuning in. We hope you like the show. We hope you tell a friend about it. We hope you subscribe to it. And uh, if you like the music, Andy's gonna play a a tune to go out on tonight. But if you like what he usually curates, he does a weekly internet radio show on Shady Pines Radio. It's called Hesh Air with Mr. Tomorrow every Friday at six.

SPEAKER_01 1:40:33

So I'll rip your goddamn weekend in half. Yep. Ruin your weekend. Every Friday. I'll ruin your weekend in one hour. Come on in. Yeah. Uh give him a little taste, Andy. What are we going out on tonight? Oh man. Uh, you know what? Johnny Franco just dropped a live album. And that guy plays live. Yeah. This is as far as live albums go, this is exactly what you want from Johnny Franco. It is 30 minutes or less. There's banter, there's a cover. It's it's good and it's really fun. It's called uh Ben's Garage. It's live from somebody's house. If you guys don't know Johnny Franco yet, go outside. He's probably outside right now playing. This man does not sleep. He plays everywhere, he plays every Friday at midnight at the star day. He just has a standing date. You'll be in there drinking, and all of a sudden he'll be playing. You won't even know it. Not bad. And uh he's got the uh Curbside Serenades coming back up real soon. And uh him putting out this live album just kind of makes me feel like summer's right around the corner. So get out there and check it out and get this album. And it's a really fun listen. And I'm gonna play you the last song off of it called Hope for the Best, Expect the Worst. Alright.

SPEAKER_02 1:41:42

Well, for Teddy and Robert of Satan's Pilgrims, for Nate, for Andy, this is Drew. We will see you next week on Hot Garbage.

SPEAKER_00 1:41:54

Hope for the best. Expect the worst. Some drink champagne, some die of thirst. There's never knowing which way it's going. Hope for the best. Expect the worst. I knew a man who saved a fortune. He was splendid and he died. The day you went to go and spend it, shouting, live while you're alive, no one will survive. Life is sorrow here today and gone tomorrow. Live while you're alive. No one will survive. There's no guarantee. He was splendid and he died. The day he went to go and spend it, shouted, live while you're alive, no one will survive. Life is funny. Save your worries, spend your money, live while you're alive. No one will survive. There's no guarantee. Hope for the best. Expect the worst. The world's a stage we're unrehearsed. Some reach the top friends, and some will drop friends. Hope for the best. Expect the worst. Hope for the best. Expect the worst. The rich are blessed, the poor are cursed. That is the fact, friends, the deck is stacked, friends. Hope for the best, expect the worst. I say hope for the best. Expect the worst, yes, hope for the best. Expect Even with a good beginning, is no certain that you're winning. Even with the best of chances, they can kick you in the pants.